Oh.

The account does not exist.

So anyway, [clears throat] I don't know if we want, wanna have a discussion about, you know, I think, you know, uh, in a lot of these cases, you know, having reported on a couple stories like this, I think in this digital media world, it is certainly our st- it is still, certainly still our responsibility to give people a chance to comment.

I think the incentive is a lot less than if we were, you know, living in 1964, and we had a newspaper, and this was the only way for people to get their side of the story out versus now, where everyone has a media following in their pocket, and they can do it on their own terms rather than give a, a comment to somebody that they might see as adversarial.

Um, so there's that.

He is, he is under this order of protection, um, through October 20th, which is the next hearing date, uh, for this case.

This is a civil matter.

And that was, I mean, that is, I think, a, an undue harassment that this person was going to receive that we did not think was worthy of disclosing that name.

But the, ESPN is in the WWE business in large part because they wanted to have that programming to help launch ESPN Unlimited, the same way that Peacock was- NBC was interested in having the pay-per-views to help launch Peacock, um, and things like that.

Yeah, I think that's exactly it, that when Peacock started, it started, if not, if not right before, did, did, was, was Peacock launched with WPLEs on it? Probably not.

It was probably just after it launched, if my memory is right.

But yeah, I think that's the idea, is that this was a standalone WWE Network service that did draw well over one million viewers domestically.

So you're gonna get roughly that when you buy up that content.

So that's...

I mean, Peacock grew for quite a while, and it benefited WWE too because you had not just people who were willing to pay $10 a month, but people who had Peacock because, whatever, they were on a Comcast cable service or, or whatever the reason was.

Mm-hmm

But ESPN is in the WWE business in large part because they wanted to have that programming to help launch ESPN Unlimited the same way that Peacock was – NBC was interested in having the pay-per-views to help launch Peacock and things like that.

Yeah, I think that's exactly it.

When Peacock started, it started, if not right before, was Peacock launched with WPLEs on it? Probably not.

It was probably just after it launched, if my memory is right.

I think that's the idea is that this was a standalone WB network service that did draw well over 1 million viewers domestically.

So you're going to get roughly that when you buy up that content.

So that's...

It has to do entirely with business performance.

So-

That's why in indie wrestling sort of in, in my experience was full of...

It, it was very tempting to, to be, you know, to, to, to see opportunities to sort of, you know, tell somebody new that they're doing something wrong 'cause there's all this sort of performative power structure performance happening.

And, and, and things like that can fit right into it.

You're not doing the ring crew.

You didn't set up the chairs.

You didn't give up your seat to somebody.

Yes.

Mm-hmm.

So whatever your, your, your network shows, it's like 50% of that, that watch time is DVR.

And now we have everybody watching that stuff on, on streaming, so they're, you know, don't even have to bother to turn on, uh, the big network, uh, channels.

So, so, so part of that consumption, pa- part of that decline get, you could explain by saying, well, it's people gravitating towards DVRs, people gravitating towards things like Hulu when Raw was, you know, airing on Hulu, or Peacock, or whatever it is.

Um, but they, so all, all of that made it complicated enough to try to understand why Raw's ratings were declining.

Now, I think it was also, you could also look at other metrics across the same time, particularly in years of like the t- the late 2010s, where you could see attendance was declining in a lot of areas-

Yeah, yeah.

Then the n- then the next week he was not on television.

So I don't expect you to have the answer either, 'cause I don't think any of us do of what the decision-making was behind making th- this move, um, just now at, at this venture after all this time of pushing for the public trial.

And we'll discuss some of the, the Instagram posts later that she's made, Janelle Grant has made in, in recent days.

She did post something less than an hour ago.

It's, I think it's a, it's a poem.

But, so it's not something obviously related to, to really legal issues.

Um, but she's still posting on, on social media, uh, after this, this filing, uh, appeared on the docket today.

Um, this is a very short...

Yes.

Yes.

Um, yeah, and, and just to, to, to, to finish, uh, the, the thought about what the, what, who the plaintiffs are real quick.

So these three lawsuits sort of came together into one, and actually the Ohio fund and Dennis Palkin, they combined in- into one set of, of plaintiffs, and then the City of Pontiac.

There was some litigation back and forth between, between the plaintiffs about who was gonna get to be the lead plaintiff, and ultimately the Palkin and Ohio group are the lead plaintiffs.

Um, so th- these are the defendants.

These are all...

It's important that these are all members of the board of directors.

I guess a natural question as well, Brandon, is how much of the Chanel Grant case is going to seep into this trial a-as well? Like, that is a big part- portion here of Vince McMahon's exit from the company and then his return to the company and ultimately exiting TKO in two thousand and twenty-four, where this all begins with the anonymous email sent to the board in March and April of two thousand and twenty-two.

What is spoliation? Well, it means that there are key pieces of, uh, information, documents of all types, electronic and otherwise, that are to be preserved for potential legal issues, and that is at the core of, uh, Judge Travis Lasker's, uh, 41-page opinion that he dropped.

Yes.

So Vince McMahon and Nick Khan have been sanctioned.

What does that mean? They've been sanctioned for their, um...

[lips smack] The judge has written it now, so I guess we c- we don't have to hedge as much.

They, they have been sanctioned for their failure to preserve electronic sensitive communications.

Is that what ESI stands for? They have, they have been sanctioned for their failure to protect and to preserve communications despite being under a legal hold notice.

Di-did you get the best deal for, for this company is going to be the central question

Mm-hmm.

And Reelz is a cable net- network that's a- was also being simulcast on Peacock.

Peacock, of course, owned by NBC Universal, a, a WWE partner, and we don't...

Now, now this isn't the Peacock contract, right? This is not that W Network PLE contract.

That's not what this is.

Um, but maybe there's similar language, uh, in, i-in this.

So when MLW aired on the Reelz network and was, it, it, it, you could watch it on the Reelz network if you had that as part of your cable system, but if you turned on the Peacock, uh, simulcast of Reelz, when MLW came on, you did not see MLW.

You know, if you are looking at expenses, talent is one of those areas that they can control in such a way and just come to talents and some talents will take that offer that they would rather make less than be cut altogether.

Oh, okay

... my friends, the, the, the folks at the Las Vegas Commen- Convention and Visitors Authority.

Now, let's just lay it all out on the table here.

I s- I sent...

Oh, you know what today is? Today, you know what, what today's date is? It's April 23rd, 2026, which marks one year since I sent a records request to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, which they have still not responded to.

They did respond to a separate records request that Jason Unpraser sent them that was much narrow, much narrower.

That's, you know, that said, "We want the contract and only the contract that will reveal the site fee," and things like that.

Yes.

These, uh, these were the identities of two of the bidders.

Yeah.

So, well, uh, y- you, you may be overstating my, my judicial victory slightly that the, the burden...

I, I don't know that it's quite fair to say that the judge favored my argument because the burden, this- people really care about this, the burden is with the moving party here and that, that...

And by the way, it's, it's, um, Monday was National Freedom of Information, uh, uh, Day, uh, in, in commemoration of James Madison's birthday.

And so, so in, in the favor of making things transparent for the public interest, the burden is with the party who wants to hold onto this information anyway.

I, I did have to oppose it.

That's for them to decide.

That's h- that's how confident they are in Collision in the, this new data system.

Yeah.

Uh, so, so you can...

It, it bears looking at the charts.

You can really s- I've dr- I've dr- drawn lines here, vertical lines, where like this is when big data went into effect.

This pink line here is when they made the change, and for Collision in particular you see this big jump.

Um, for Dynamite you see, I think basically all of the numbers for for since the change have been better than before the change.

Mm

What is going on in, uh, Delaware?

So in the, in the shareholder case, um, this is not the only, uh, shareholder case that is, uh, enveloping, uh, one Ari Emanuel.

But there's also a consolidated shareholder case against Endeavor.

I believe it's related to Endeavor's take private action.

Remember, Endeavor used to be a publicly traded company and they decided to spin out, uh, UFC and create TKO and then take the rest of the company private.

Um, so they're being sued in, in Delaware Chancery Court over that.

L- like I've s- I said before, when you have these big take private actions or merger actions, it's very often that the shareholders get together and say, "We didn't get enough.

Uh, any relation?

Yes

... de- de- denied.

Because the, the, the, the lawsuit says that they have never denied that they brought m- uh, brought Mel Phillips back, who is, by the way, the one who is alleged to have perpetrated all this abuse.

Well, almost all of it.

Um, the plaintiffs say that Vince and Linda have never denied that they brought back Mel Phillips with the instruction that he steer clear of kids, alluding to the notion that they were aware that he was a danger to, to children, but as long as you st- steer clear of children, okay, we'll bring you back.

And then according to this, this, uh, lawsuit, he...

There, there are, there are abuse allegations after that point.

He has never, he has never outright denied that WBD has some type of stake in the company, and-

Yes

... de-denied.

Because the, the, the, the lawsuit says that they have never denied that they brought m-, uh, brought Mel Phillips back, who is, by the way, the one who is alleged to have perpetrated all this abuse.

Well, almost all of it.

Um, the plaintiffs say that Vince and Linda have never denied that they brought back Mel Phillips with the instruction that he steer clear of kids, alluding to the notion that they were aware that he was a danger to, to children, but as long as you s-steer clear of children, okay, we'll bring you back.

And then according to this, this, uh, lawsuit, he, there, there are, there are abuse allegations after that point.

Um, they deny that, that this happened.

He has never, he has never outright denied that WBD has some type of stake in the company, and-

Like, at what digit of your credit card that you're typing in are you realizing, "Hey, I might get an additional payment charged to my card on this"? At what point does it dawn on you that this is not coming with your existing subscription package? Like, what onus is on these plaintiffs here that even with poor messaging is-- does come the enlightenment that this does not come with my existing package?

Right.

It's not like they were charged something automatically.

They had to-- For f- for people maybe outside the US who don't know what's going on here, a- about half the country, maybe less than half, were able to authenticate into the ESPN app as part of their regular package.

There may have been complications about which tier you were on, I don't know.

But some people were able to log i- to log in, no upcharge, they got to watch it.

And as time goes on, presumably, and ESPN/Disney reworks their deals with all these TV carriers, maybe more of that.

But what has the move from Netflix to or, or onto Netflix meant for Raw's base audience in, in the US?

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

I, I think, um, what- whether or not there's gonna be fans that do feel...

Like, you can tell yourself a story throughout this year of the ticket prices being so high, that's gonna turn off people who were previously more engaged.

And when it comes time to, you know, revisit those cities, and maybe you do have to lower those prices, maybe those fans will, will just be sort of turned off and, and, and alienated.

Um, I guess I'm, I'm, I'm skeptical that that's gonna happen.

I think, you know, there, there are...

He's j- j- just a little bit.

Uh, well, why don't, why don't you take us through the, uh, the cliff notes version of, uh, of this suit? What is at contention and what the previous deal was that is causing a contentious issue now?

So there was a lawsuit filed by one Kim Schofield.

Uh, this is in-- This is filed in the United States in the federal, in federal court in Southern District of New York, although she is from Ontario.

Um, she is the, the daughter of the late Pete Schofield, who compo- Well, it's very complicated, right? And somebody even sent me a clip since, uh, since I did this story showing that the, the John Cena theme is apparently a combination of three different samples, one of which is the Pete Schofield cover of, of a different song that was a hit for Vi-Vicki Lawrence.

Um, the, the, The Night...

I'll, I'll pull it up.

Um, he, he covered this song, and that song is both in the intro and it serves as sort of the backbone throughout the John Cena song.

Why do we have to overwrite that? And her argument sounds to be like she was not given a full picture of, you know, like this, this Toyota campaign that was going to feature the song and the, these other, you know, the, the value attached to that, that theme for John Cena.

Mm-hmm

...

in the last year or so or couple years.

Um, so they're not maybe even being measured.

In any case, we don't know what their ratings are.

Um, we should get the MC ratings, um- A- AMC is, is measured by Nielsen, so I expect that we will be getting these ratings.

Uh, and I...

Like, this is the first deal we have that has kinda come through this new methodology, and we're not gonna know the full impact until, like, years from now when the, when all of these other programs, uh, come due because there's not going to be any wrestling programming that's, uh, coming up for renewal anytime soon.

These are all gonna be, uh, sit-down releases w- for, uh, What's Your Story with Stephanie McMahon.

Unfortunately, depositions do not immediately, immediately become part of the public record.

It's probably unlikely that an entire deposition transcript will become part of the public record, but e- but excerpts might become, uh, part of the public record.

Um, we know there's, there's issues around these, um, plaintiffs wanting the signal messages between these parties that seem to have, uh, possibly been set to auto-delete.

Um, w- what else is happening here? We learned that, that Vince did get his phone back.

Um, the, the plaintiffs also want all the records that WWE provided to federal agencies, that is the SEC and the DOJ.

Uh, reportedly Vince McMahon was under a criminal investigation.

Could you imagine? We'd get a photo with him.

Um, do you see Cody and Punk, like, one significantly a bigger, um, candidate than, than the other? And how did you arrive at the decisions? Like, when did you believe, like, Cody crossed the threshold for, for you?

Um, with this, I think last year, I think he crossed the threshold and not before then.

And I don't know if he was on the ballot before then.

Um, I guess I think Punk has a stronger case just because he's older and just has had more time to build his case.

Um, and so, um, but if, I guess if we were narrowly just talking about who has a, a stronger Hall of Fame case the last couple years, then maybe it would be Cody.

But I think it's, it's, it's, it's tough though because Punk also came back to AEW, uh, in 2021 and, and helped AEW reach its hottest period ever by, by far.

Um, but no, I think Cody has, has done it as one of the top stars, one of the top two or three stars in WWE f- for each of these last years since 2023.

the declines

Th- this only contributes to the downward trend we have seen of, uh, SmackDown now three weeks into the new, uh, ratings methodology.

Yeah, it's, it's virtually the same number as the prior week where it was astoundingly low.

Uh, but about the same number this week.

So at least, I don't know, like, it, it, it does, you know, suggest that maybe there was some change in the methodology from week one to week two here, but they're all way lower, the wrestling programs are.

Um, should we clarify, like, I, I, I, I hope we can ask Nielsen about this at some point.

Um, is it your understanding, have you explained this to me already, because someone else has, that the latest and most plausible theory, I think, is that the, uh, one of the big changes, perhaps the big change that is affecting wrestling viewership is the fact that it is a long program.

It's a two-hour program at least.

I mean, could you imagine? Like, this, this would be a way more interesting podcast lineup than anything Ari Emanuel can book.

From this, what else were you able to obtain in your digging that you were able to find out?

It looks like there were a number of events that were initially at least planned on paper that were to happen at the esports stadium.

Despite being a stadium, it's a relatively small event compared to major arenas.

But they were in this big application that they had to submit, which also included an estimate of the number of spectators who would attend.

And they're also considering the staff, the talent, the personnel who are going to work the show who are also traveling in mostly from outside the area.

They're going to consume hotels and food and shopping and everything.

And that's going to help create a positive economic impact for the local area.

... was able to report this

I can do without these 10 PLEs.

It's good from a promotional aspect in terms of probably there will be WWE promotions on Monday Night Football and ESPN.

It's good to have partners across the media ecosystem to help promote your shows.

But there is a trade-off and a negative in that fans have to figure out where the show is.

And that takes some work.

And that's some friction.

Just listing off the number of services that you will now have to have to watch all of the WWE content.

What is the thinking behind this?